How do Ukraine’s top public officials afford their posh lifestyles based on their paltry official salaries, which are often lower than the average wage in Kyiv?
President
Viktor Yanukovych’s chief of staff Sergiy Lyovochkin, who recently bought 20
percent of the country’s biggest Inter TV channel, has a monthly salary of only Hr
6,308 (about $789), the presidential administration said in reply
to a written Kyiv Post request.
Lyovochkin’s
deputies, meanwhile, make only Hr 5,312, while heads of the main departments
receive Hr 3,538 with other heads making Hr 3,126.
“The
average salary for staff members of the Presidential Administration is Hr
3,153,” Denys Ivanesko, head of the main department for access to public
information of the Presidential Administration, said.
It is lower
than the official average salary in Kyiv, which was Hr 4,500 ($555) in 2012, according
to city administrator Oleksandr Popov. But Natalia Matsypura of the HH.ua recruiting
service estimated that Kyiv’s white-collar workers receive Hr 7,000-8,000 per
month on average.
However,
even the Presidential Administration admits that the disclosed figures are just
base salary amounts. It said the presidential staff makes more in premiums and
bonuses, which the administration refuses to disclose.
And then
there’s on-the-side business interests, which are often not disclosed.
Lyovochkin
declared Hr 313,997 in salary in 2011, more than Hr 26,000 per month. It’s more
than $2,000 a month – liveable in Kyiv, but barely so.
Oddly,
Ivanesko told the Kyiv Post that he didn’t know the salary of President Viktor
Yanukovych. But, in his 2011 tax declaration, Yanukovych said he earned Hr
757,615 or Hr 63,000 or nearly $8,000 per month.
Not bad,
but the sums still don’t explain mansions, luxury automobiles and other
trappings of wealth. So how do they do it?
Perhaps, as
Lyovochkin has said in the past, Ukraine’s officials simply made their money in
business before entering public service. And what a successful business it must
have been for Lyovochkin, since a 20 percent stake in Inter TV channel is
conservatively valued at $150 million.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be
reached at [email protected]
